Texturing Clay Using Everyday Items at Home

When I started claying, the lack of tools and textures annoyed me very much :). If you ever felt the same, then this blog post is for you. This blog talks about creative ways of using different items available at home for texturing polymer clay.

Though I cannot deny the fact that the texture sheets and other tools give you the best results and ease the work, I have realized that there are many other items available at home that can be used for texturing polymer clay and still make your work wonderful.

The following  are some of items that can be used for texturing polymer clay -
a) Organic textures like leaves, flowers, twigs etc
b) Old charms, pendants and beads
c) Old brushes, razor, kitchen scrubs etc
d) Sandpapers, needles, toothpicks etc
And the list is endless and depends on your creativity :)

In this article, I will show how to use old charms , beads and plastic net specifically to make beautiful jewellery.

Materials Needed

1. Polymer clay. Here I used Premo Sculpey (red and pink colours)

2. Tissue Blades

3. Ceramic tile to work with

4. Pasta machine

5. Oven for curing and oven thermometer for measuring temperature

6. Materials used for texturing - old mini pendant, acrylic rose flower bead and plastic net
7. Paints and Pearl-ex powder(gold aztec)
8. Cookie cutters of your choice
9. Sculpey gloss glaze

Expertise Level : Beginner level with basic working knowledge of polymer clay 

1. Condition the clay properly. Use clay conditioning machine to condition until it becomes smooth and soft and easy to work with. The thickness of the clay depends on the material you are going to use for texture. If you use a charm with deep impression to texture the clay, then the thickness of the clay should be more.If the texturing material is thick with deep impressions and the thickness of clay is thin, pressing the texture into the clay can tear the clay. So use the thickness based on your texture.

2. I am using old pendant on pink clay, old acrylic rose flower bead  and plastic wire sheet on red clay

3. 
a) Texturing with mini pendant : Apply little water to the pedant and place design down facing the clay , gently press the pendant into the clay with your hands. Once it sticks to clay, use roller to roll out the clay as needed. Remove the pendant 
b) Texturing with acrylic flower bead : Apply little water to bead and to the clay. Place design down facing the clay, gently press the bead into the clay with your hand. Repeat pressing into clay multiple times to get rose textured sheet
c) Texturing with plastic wire sheet : Place the plastic wire sheet on the clay , smooth it with hands and make sure it sticks to the clay. Then roll the clay with roller. Gently remove the plastic wire sheet

Viola, you will have beautiful designs imprinted on the clay :)

4. Once texturing is done, use cookie cutters to cut different shapes of your taste and size

5. Treat the finished pieces with pearl-ex mica powder and paints. I have used pearl-ex aztec gold on textured roses and pendant pattern before baking. And used gold paint to finish wire pattern after baking.

6. Bake all the pieces at recommended temperature mentioned on the package of the clay. Seal them by applying your favourite polymer clay compatible glaze(like renaissance wax, water based polyurethane like minwax or varathane -thanks to maneesha for providing the list of glazes) . In this case I have used sculpey glossy glaze . Add hooks and ear wires to make earrings.

Thanks for reading.

Happy Claying ...:)

Polymer Clay Essential Tool Kit

Polymer clay art has been gaining popularity in India now-a-days and everything related to polymer clay art is very expensive - say clay , tools etc. If you are a beginner and wanted to start with polymer clay art  and do not know where to start and what to buy ,then you are in the right place.

The magnitude of  tools available for polymer clay in the market are so rich that it is very confusing for a beginner to decide on what to buy.This post talks about the important and mandatory tools needed to start with polymer clay art.

The following are the mandatory tools needed to start with polymer clay -

1) Polymer clay: This is the first mandatory component to make polymer clay art. There are different brands of polymer clay available like -sculpey, fimo, kato etc. I started with 'sculpey premo' and it is a good start for a beginner

2) Workspace: Workspace is nothing but the surface to work on.Polymer clay contains lot of plasticizers and oils in it and so porous surfaces like wood will not work with polymer clay. The polymer clay leaches into wood spoiling the wood and also clay can get brittle. The recommended surfaces are - acrylic surface, glass tile or ceramic tile. The most inexpensive work surface is ceramic tile and the tile can also go into oven without any issues.

3) Rollers: Rollers are used to roll and condition the clay. Acrylic and glass rollers work best. Wooden rollers are not recommended.

4) Tissue Blades: Blades are useful in cutting the clay, shaping the clay etc. You can can use any normal tissue blade of your choice to start with. Sculpey also provides a set of 4 different blades.X-acto knife can also be used and even the razor blade :)


5) Oven and Oven thermometer: Polymer clay should be cured in oven to get it hardened at recommended temperature.The temperature varies based on the brand of polymer clay. The type of oven to be used is - OTG. Microwave ovens are not recommended to use. Most of the ovens have fluctuating temperatures and so it is important to get oven thermometer to measure the correct temperature

And all other tools are fancy and makes your life easy. Few of those tools to name are -

1) Pasta machine: Pasta machine makes clayer's life easy and helps to ease the conditioning of the clay

2) Cookie cutters: Cookie cutters(you can find them in any cake shop) are useful to cut different shapes easily. There are different shapes and sizes of cutters available. Hand cut paper templates or plastic templates also work.

3) Ball and Shaping tools: These tools are useful for texturing, shaping etc


Why wait? Grab some tools and start claying. Happy Claying 

My love towards polymer clay

When I was exploring basic jewellery making techniques, I have gone through a lot of you tube videos on polymer clay without knowing anything about it. And it was fairly new art medium then in India and gaining much popularity now-a-days. I was very much fascinated by this medium and got introduced to polymer clay in a basic polymer clay workshop by Artzire in person.  I was able to manage to get few tools with the help of  friends from USA and started experimenting late 2017. Thanks to such sweet friends :) . Please note I am still a newbie :)

Well now, What is Polymer Clay?

Polymer clay is type of modelling clay based on polyvinyl chloride(PVC) which hardens on baking. This is very versatile medium which provides endless possibilities. There are different brands of polymer clay like Sculpey, Fimo, Kato etc. each with its own properties and use. I mostly use Sculpey Premo as of now and explore other brands in future

Polymer clay blocks from Sculpey and Kato

My baby steps (the first trials)

Some experiments with polymer clay

Some of my favourites

Polymer clay is very versatile medium and provides infinite possibilities. Sky is the only limit. If you try , you fall in love. Happy Claying :)

How I started my art journey?

Hurray! I am very excited to pen my first post on my blog. This post talks about how I started my journey in art.

My mother,strongly believes in financial independance for women, has art gene in her who used to make dolls, weave baskets and embroidery. I have grown up seeing my sister too pursue different forms of art through out. Believe me, art was never been my serious hobby though I tried my hand at drawing, coloring,rangoli in my child hood.

One fine day I had to accompany my sister for a free jewellery making class sponsored by Eenadu. I was inspired by a lady who has shown making simple earrings.That touched hidden gene of art in me and that is when I started exploring. I have started going through different you tube tutorials, articles on jewellery making and components used. Started with simple earrings to learn different techniques. I tried my hand initially at bead weaving, simple wire wrapping techniques etc.


Some of the very first jewellery I made